“To say Apple (AAPL) has had a rough go of it as of late would be an understatement,” Chris Ciaccia writes for TheStreet. “The company’s third-quarter earnings may just show that the company is poised to a turn a corner, as investors, journalists and consumers alike wait for ‘one more thing.'”

“Apple’s share price has continued to underperform the broader averages, falling 19.6% year-to-date, compared to an 18.8% gain in the S&P 500,” Ciaccia writes. “Apple was once the darling of Wall Street, as it could seemingly do no wrong, selling more iPhones and iPads than anyone thought imaginable. Now, the perception and reality on Apple has changed, but the company’s fiscal third-quarter earnings report could start to change all that.”

Ciaccia writes, “Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White believes the attention is starting to shift in a positive way for Apple, as investors start to look toward next year. ‘With Apple on the verge of what we believe will be a major product cycle over the next 12-18 months and the stock trading at an anemic 6x CY14 P/E multiple (ex-cash), we believe it would be shortsighted to place too much emphasis on the Company’s near-term financial performance,’ White wrote in his report.”

MacDailyNews Note: Apple will provide live audio streaming of its Q313 Third Quarter Results Conference Call using Apple’s industry-leading QuickTime multimedia software. The live webcast will begin at 2:00 p.m. PDT on Tuesday, July 23, 2013 here and will also be available for replay for approximately two weeks thereafter. The webcast is available on any iPhone, iPad or iPod touch running iOS 4.2 or above, any Mac running OS X 10.5 or above or any PC running QuickTime 7 or later.

As usual, MacDailyNews will provide live notes of Apple’s Q313 conference call today at 5pm EDT. Check our home page for the link later today at approximately 4:45pm EDT.

Apple would have to deliver a near-perfect product because every tech pundit in the world is going to try to tear apart whatever product Apple makes. Apple is certainly not going to deliver some ultra-cutting edge iPhone. It’s still going to be a conservative product and nothing that any high-end Android smartphone hasn’t already done. Apple still has to try and hold profit margins so it can’t use any exotic materials. Unless the next iPhone does have a fingerprint sensor, any high-end Android smartphone will have already had it. Faster processors, higher megapixel cameras, better battery life, etc.

The tech pundits will say it’s just a mediocre smartphone and the news media will jump all over that. Apple would have to sell about 40 million new iPhones to move Apple’s share price up and that doesn’t seem likely. There’s absolutely nothing Apple can do the way they are now. Apple needs to find a new revenue stream as soon as possible and it can’t be hardware. Hardware is getting Apple nowhere fast. Anything Apple introduces will be quickly duplicated and surpassed in a matter of months by Samsung or some or some other device vendor. Apple needs to get into monetizing services as soon as possible or the company will continue to lose shareholder value.